‘She faked being a virgin yet was pregnant by another man’

A 21-YEAR-OLD woman shocked the Lusaka Boma Court when she revealed that she got married to her fiancé fully aware that she was three months pregnant with another man’s baby.
Senda Kafimbi of Kanyama told senior court magistrate Mable Mwaba that she allowed marriage preparations to proceed because she did not have the courage to tell her fiancé that she was expecting another man’s baby.
But her husband, Justin Muyangwa, 36, of the same township told the court that he felt cheated by Senda’s family for misleading him that their daughter (Senda) was still a virgin at the time they were getting married.
This was heard in a case in which Senda sued Justin for divorce. The two got married on August 20 last year. Justin was charged K7 million as lobola and has since paid K5million.
They have no child together but Senda has an eight-month-old baby with another man only identified as Ernest. Justin has five children with his first wife.
Senda, a teacher by profession, said she courted Justin for three months before they decided to get married. However, she was also engaged in a sexual relationship with another man. She said theirs was a polygamous marriage making her the second wife.
“After one month and 15 days of staying together as husband and wife, Justin discovered that I was then four months pregnant. I admitted and told him who the father was. Naturally, he took me back to my parents,” she said.
Senda said at the meeting, Justin and his relatives demanded a refund of K3million and decided that the K2million be paid to her to help her start a business and a new life since the father of the child had denied responsibility.
However, when she was about eight months pregnant, Justin disappeared and stopped answering her calls. He only resurfaced when the baby was about three months, demanding for his lobola refund from her parents.
Senda said while relatives were discussing modes of payment to settle the K3million debt, Justin was busy trying to warm his way back into her life and he managed as the two rekindled their love affair.
“We have had an on and off relationship since October last year when he took me back to my parents’ place. When things are good between us, he doesn’t want his money back but when we argue, he starts bothering my parents demanding his lobola refund,” she said.
She said she was now fed up of the “whole embarrassing and shameful” situation which has turned her family into a laughing stock in their community and that was the reason she decided to divorce in court so they could go their separate ways.
When asked by the court why she went ahead with the marriage when she knew she was already pregnant for another, Senda said she was not positively sure she was pregnant at the time because she continued to have normal periods for the first three months.
But in his statement, Justin told the court that when he met Senda, they agreed that they would not have sex before they got married. He said even her parents told his family that she was still a virgin.
He said apart from paying lobola, he had spent a lot of money during their marriage preparations which included sponsoring two elderly traditional marriage counsellors called alangizi from out of Lusaka to come and teach her about marriage.
“I was shocked and concerned when I noticed things were not as I thought after we consummated our union. I observed her a few times until I finally asked her and she confessed and told me that she was indeed four months pregnant.
I felt cheated because I am sure that her parents as well as the alangizi must have known she was already pregnant yet they allowed us to go ahead with the marriage. That is the reason I want this marriage to be dissolved,” he said.
When asked by the court if he was still interested in Senda and still loved her, Justin hesitated before responding that he was ready to finally put closure to their relationship.
Passing judgment, the court, after counselling Senda and Justin, dissolved the union declaring it a void marriage as they got married when she was pregnant for another man.
Senda was not compensated but the court ordered that they share property acquired together equally.